Posts Tagged ‘Drugs’

I was reminded earlier today of the instance where the futile stupidity of the drug war became so apparently obvious to me. For quite some time now (ever since reading Friedman & Szasz’s Liberty & Drugs) I have held the standard libertarian position in favor of drug-legalization. But it was always a rather abstract, almost esoteric position – something I accepted intellectually – almost as part of a check-the-boxes-of-libertarianism – but never really applied or actually felt. Then one day I actually was able to see first hand the effects of the drug-war, and its insane stupidity, and I felt like I was quite literally hit.

Essentially throughout last year (while I was completing my Masters in Public Policy), I took advantage of my law degree and worked part-time as a defense paralegal. I was observing a case where a teenager was convicted of ‘deemed supply’ of ecstasy – essentially he just had enough in his amount that it was ruled he was a supplier, even though there was no evidence of this. In NSW, 3g (or roughly 30 pills) is enough to have you deemed a supplier – hardly enough to make you a drug baron.

Merits of this particular case aside, I was watching this trial and conviction unfold and began to think about the cost involved.

Now, this trial went for 5 days, plus sentencing. The government paid for a judge, his clerk, court officers, security, prosecution counsel, defense counsel (both barrister and solicitor – and their many house of case preparation), jury fees, court operating costs, witness expenses, and obviously all the costs involved in the police preparing for the trial.

Adding these up – and remember how exorbitantly staggering particularly defense legal fees are legal aid or not – and it’s a staggering amount. Plus of course there’s the cost of sentence on top of this. Quite possibly over $100,000 in total. And why? Because a kid had a few pills on him.

We could have spent $100,000 – or even more – of taxpayer money to punish a kid for having a small bag of pills. $100,000. Heck, even if it was only half that it’s still a staggering, staggering thing to think about.

Then multiply this by all the drug cases our courts hear. All the police resources they take up. And think how much better the money could be spent.

[As a side note, working in the legal industry made me rapidly lose most of the respect I used to have for police as an institution, and realise just how f**ked our justice system is – quite scary really. But thats for another post]